Machine knitting

ABSTRACT

TUBULAR FABRIC IS WARP-KNITTED TO HAVE A PLURALITY OF NARROW TUBULAR PORTIONS LOCATED SIDE-BY-SIDE BUT SPACED APART AND JOINED ENDWISE TO A SINGLE WIDE TUBULAR PORTION. KNIT ARTICLES SO FORMED, COMPRISING A PAOIR OF SPACED NARROW TUBES JOINED ENDWISE TO A WIDE TUBE, ARE USEFUL FOR GARMENTS IN WHICH THE WIDE TUBULAR PORTION SURROUNDS THE TRUNK OR BODY, AND THE NARROW TUBULAR PORTIONS SURROUND THE LIMBS, E.G., PANTY HOSE AND PANTY GIRDLES.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 umx. UM ail Filed Feb. 14, 1968 ummmumummmuun United States Patent M 3,566,619 MACHINE KNITTING Seymour C. Titone, Birchrunville, Pa., assignor to Titone Research & Development Corporation, Burlington,

Filed Feb. 14, 1968, Ser. No. 705,377 Int. Cl. D04b 23/02 US. Cl. 66-87 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Tubular fabric is warp-knitted to have a plurality of narrow tubular portions located side-by-side but spaced apart and joined endwise to a single wide tubular portion. Knit articles so formed, comprising a pair of spaced narrow tubes joined end-wise to a wide tube, are useful for garments in which the wide tubular portion surrounds the trunk or body, and the narrow tubular portions surround the limbs, e.g., panty hose and panty girdles.

This invention relates to machine knitting of tubular fabric and converting at given locations along its length between forming a major tubular portion and forming at least two lesser tubular portions spaced apart side-byside and joined endwise thereto.

My similarly entitled patent application filed on Dec. 29, 1967 as Ser. No. 694,655, which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses means and methods for forming similar knit articles without spacing of the lesser tubular portions apart from one another at their junction to the major tubular portion. The present invention is an improvement thereover especially desirable in the formation of certain garments.

A primary object of the present invention is formation of warp-knit fabric articles having a wide tubular portion adapted to surround at least a portion of a persons body or trunk and having a plurality of narrower tubular portions adapted to surround limbs of the person.

Another object is provision of such articles having a medial part of the body portion distinguished in appearance and make-up from the limb portions.

A further object is provision of such articles in seamless construction.

Other Objects of the present invention, together with means and methods for attaining the various objects, will be apparent from the following description and the accompanying diagrams.

FIG. 1 is a view of a product of this invention as produced in band form, shown partly broken away to conserve space;

FIG. 2A is a similar view of a garment, useful as panty hose, cut from the product of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 2B is a similar view of another garment, useful as a panty girdle, cut from the product of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a threading diagram for the aforementioned product on a double needlebed machine; and

FIG. 4 is a stitch diagram for the respective yarn guide bars in formation of such product.

In general, the objects of the present invention are accomplished by providing yarn along an entire bandwidth on a double needlebed machine, knitting a full-width tubular portion and knitting, end-to-end thereto, a plurality of side-by-side spaced-apart partial width tubular portions and an intervening medial strip disjoined from Patented Mar. 2, 1971 the partial-width portions, and then severing the medial strip along the junction thereof with the base of the fullwidth portion between the junction of the full-width and partial-width portions.

FIG. 1 shows article band 11 as produced according to this invention, broken away at each end and with intermediate portions thereof also broken away to conserve space of illustration. It will be understood that such an article band is produced endlessly as long as the knitting machine is supplied with yarn and is operated to produce it. Large elliptical broken lines 12 indicate the circumferential extent of full-width tubular portions 118, and transverse solid lines 13 surrounded thereby indicate loci for severing of the band in formation of individual articles, Small elliptical broken lines 14 indicate the circumferential extent of partial-width tubular portions 11A, and transverse solid line 15 indicates a severing locus for the partial-width tubular portions and for intervening medial strip (shown shaded), which is flanked by but disjoined from the partial-width tubular portions, while shorter transverse solid lines 17 indicate severing loci for the medial strip itself between the junction of full-width tubular portions B and partial-width tubular portions A. Each severing locus 17 is located between the junction of one of full-width tubular portions 11B to its adjoining partial-width tubular portions A and closely adjacent base edge 11E of medial part 11D (shown shaded differently from medial strip C) of fullwidth tubular portion 11B. The width of medial part 11D (and of base edge E thereof) exceeds the width of medial strip 11C slightly, i.e., by the aggregate space between the side edge of medial strip 11C and the adjacent edges of partial-width tubular portions 11A.

FIG. 2A shows individual article 21, such as may be formed by severing article band 11 of FIG. 1 as indicated thereon, useful as panty hose. This article comprises tubular body portion 21B with medial part 21D extending from the waist or top edge down the middle of the front and back to base edge 21E between the junctions of the body portion to tubular leg portions 21A. The cuffs of the leg portions may be fitted with hold-down strips to fit under the feet if desired; alternatively they may be sewn shut, preferably after being cut to simulate the foot outline.

FIG. 2B shows individual article 31, also forrnable by severing article band 11 of FIG. 1, useful as a panty girdle. This article differs from that of FIG. 2A in having leg portions 31A considerably shorter, being intended to extend only part of the way down the thighs, than fulllength leg portions 21A of article 21. Body portion 318 thereof is narrower than body portion 21B of the FIG. 1 article, primarily because medial part 31D is narrower than corresponding part 21D. The narrowing is attributable to contraction induced by spandex yarn content, primarily in the medial part but optionally present also in the rest of the garment.

The knitting method and machine for fabricating such product may be visualized readily by persons ordinarily skilled in the warp-knitting art, especially as practiced on a double needlebed machine (Raschel, tricot, or the like), through consideration of a specific example as provided below in tables of chain readings for the yarn guide bars and the starting points therefor, together with the accompanying stitch diagrams and associated description. For the exemplified construction a total of ten guide bars will suffice; when a fourteen-bar machine is employed, the guides of the two frontmost and two rearmost bars will be left unthreaded. The reference numerals for the guide bars are underlined or italicized to distinguish them from low-numbered reference numerals for other parts.

The first table gives the starting points.

TABLE I 6, 7, 8, and 9 both the A-pattern and B-pattern of movement are indicated. It is apparents that bars 3 and 4 form a double-tricot stitch pattern on the front bed (except at medial positions thereof where only one of the two bars is threaded) while bars 11 and 12 do likewise in starting the back bed. Throughout the operation the threaded points guides of bars 5 and complete the same pattern at Drum Bar Link gg g the outer edges at the extreme right and left of the band,

thereby rendering those edges truly seamless. g 10 During the A-pattern formation, i.e., when guide bars 2 6, 7, 8, and 9 are being actuated by the links of the Egg? A-pattern chains, as set forth in Table II, threaded guides 1431144 of bars 7 and 8 function along the inner edges of the g 3 double-tricot pattern in like manner as bars 5 and 10 2 do at the outer edges, thereby seamlessly completing the 2 pair of narrow or partial-width tubular portions of the NOTE.A11 starting points are on front bed, i.6., with front; needlebar article being knitted. Therebetween the other threaded Bars 112: 131 and 14 are guides of bars 7 and 8 similarly interconnect from front FIG. 3 shows a preferred threading arrangement for bed to back bed the outer edges of the medial strip, use according to this invention. The guide bar numbers which is not tubular in form because yarns from guide appear at the right, where brackets indicate nesting of bars 6 and 9 also are interconnecting from bed to bed bars 5 and 6, and of bars '9 and 10. Each bandwidth is in a modified tricot stitch while a simple tricot stitch is 360 needles, whereupon an 1800 needle machine would being formed on the respective beds by bars 3 and 12. be capable of producing five bands simultaneously. During the A-pattern formation no yarn interconnects Threaded yarn guides of the respective bars are indicated 5 across the gap between the medial strip and the flanking by small dots or circles. Intermediate portions of the first partial-width tubular portions. band, as well as most of the second band and all of ad At the conversion from A-pattern to B-pattern formaditional bands, are broken away to simplify the illustration and thereafter during the B-pattern, guide bars 6, tion by avoiding needless repetition. The further descrip- 7, 8, and 9 all abandon their interconnecting movements tion is limited to a single band. between beds and form a pattern of jersey stitching, bars The next table gives the pattern chain readings, alter- 6 and 7 on the front bed only and bars '8 and 9 on the nate rows being designated for the front (F) and back back bed only. Although they are shogged past two (B) needlebeds, respectively. needles, instead of only one as are bars 4- and 11 in the TABLE II Left (double chain) drum Right drum 6 7 8 9 Right; drum GuidebarNo. 3 4 5 A B A B A B A B 10 11 12 Needlebed:

A suitable Raschel machine is the Kidde Fashion Masrespective beds, they move likewise so that the edges of ter, which has a pattern drum with two chains for each of certain guidebars and has associated mechanism to provide essentially instantaneous transfer from one set of chains to another, thereby interchanging from partialwidth (A-pattern) to full-width (B-pattern) and back as desired, the interchange being accomplished at a location where the A-link for each bar is the same as its B-link. Such machine is available from Cooker Machine and Foundry Co., Gastonia, NC. As indicated above, the centermost four guide bars have two pattern chains apiece, and the drum therefor over which the chains are transported is at the left end of the machine whereas the drum for the chains for the other guide bars is at the right end.

In visualization of a resulting fabric or in graphical representation of it, as on point paper, it should be remembered that the readings for the pattern links in the chains on the respective drums are oppositely directed, as an increase in link number indicates guide bar displacement from the corresponding drum end of the machine. A reading of 0 indicates the smallest or reference-link location of the bars, and readings of 2, 4 and 6 indicate displacement thereof past one, two, and three needles, respectively.

FIG. 4 is a stitch diagram showing for each guide bar the results of movement of its threaded guides. For bars their patterns fit thereinto with partial overlapping. The B-pattern results in a single full-width tubular portion having seamless lateral edges and a distinguishable medial part comprising front and back panels extending from the front and back edges to meet in a knitted junction at the base edge thereof, where the medial strip extending between the partial-width portions also joins.

As indicated in FIG. 1, an article band as it comes off the machine comprises an endless series of full-width tubular portions and partial-width portions joined endto-end, with a medial strip joined at each end to the base edge of an adjacent full-width portion and disjoined from the flanking partial-width portions. Such band then is severed transversely across the full-width portion and across the partial-width portions, and the medial strip is severed transversely at its opposite ends closely adjacent the base edge junctions. The resulting article may be turned inside out to conceal the latter cut edges if desired.

The yarns furnished to the guides participiating in formation of the partial-width tubular portions normally will be uniform. Those furnished to the guides participating in formation of the medial part of the full-width tubular portion may be, and preferably will be, different therefrom. The medial part normally will contain not only more nds of yarn and, thus, more yarn per unit area, but also at least some of such yarn (such as that furnished to bars 6 and 9 in the exemplified construction) may be heavier, of different color or luster, or of different elasticity, for example.

One desirable result of such difference in composition is that the medial part usually will be rendered opaque. When the end use of the article is as panty hose (see FIG. 2A) it often will be desired that the hose or partialwidth tubular portions be quite sheer, as is completely possible by use of sufficiently fine denier yarn and finegauge machines. Alternatively, the hose portion may be made relatively heavy, as in leotard and ski-pants uses, for example.

Incorporation of spandex yarn in the medial part of the panty or full-width tubular portion (as by furnishing it to the guides of bar 6 and optionally bar 9 also) will produce an article having figure-forming or girdle properties because of the contractile force attributable to the content of such yarn. This may be done in either the long (FIG. 2A) or short (FIG. 2B) leg article. The latter or panty-girdle style is more usual with large concentrations of spandex yarn.

Not only may spandex yarn be used in the medial part, as aforementioned, it also may be incorporated throughout the article if desired. The degree of elasticity in the rest of the garment normally will (but need not) be less than in the medial part. Any leg length may be so composed. An overall elasticity or stretch property is especially desired in ski-pants, for example.

It will be understood, of course, that the illustration and description of panty hose and panty girdles is not exhaustive of the types of articles that may be produced according to this invention. Instead of utilizing the partial-width tubular portions as hose they may be used as sleeves, with the full-width tubular portion covering the upper portion of the trunk or body rather than the lower portion. In that event the base edge of the full-width portion is left open for introduction of the head and neck, as may be done readily by forming the portion between the two side partial-width tubular portions into a third tubular portion and severing it at such location as will provide a desirable collar configuration. Alternatively, such medial portion may be formed into two strips, one on each needlebed, and be similarly severed.

A complete body covering or leotard may be formed by two sets of partial-Width tubular portions as limb coverings and the interconnecting double-length fullwidth tubular portion covering the entire trunk. The stitching on the medial portion may be altered intermediately from a closed to an open configuration so as to form a closed crotch at one base edge and an open neck at the other base edge. Appropriate adjustment of yarn tension and of drawdown tension, as will be apparent to those persons ordinarily skilled in the warpknitting art, can aid the subsequent reorientation of sleeve portions with respect to the body portion. Judicious use of spandex yarns is also useful in that regard.

More than two partial-width tubular portions per bandwidth Would be employed in the manufacture of gloves, for instance, where the interspacing feature of this invention would be most important in the instance of the thumb portion, and the finger portions might be unspaced as in a construction of my aforementioned disclosure. Greater pluralities of tubular portions may be useful in industrial uses, such as insulating coverings for conduits or piping, the products of this invention not being limited to garment uses, of course.

The stitch constructions specified herein are exemplary, and many other stitch constructions, with or without laidin yarns for decorative or other purposes may be employed. Moreover, especially where more complex patterns make demands on the number of guide bars it can be helpful to omit needles at the edges of the bands as disclosed in my similarly entitled patent application filed on Jan. 26, 1968 as Ser. No. 700,768.

It also may be advantageous, especially when using spandex or other expensive yarns in the medial part of the full-width tubular portion, to pattern the bars whose guides are furnished with such yarn so that the yarn does not enter essentially into formation of the medial strip between the partial-width tubular portions. Doing so leaves those ends of yarn relatively free and, of course, utilizes less length thereof than otherwise. Such yarns are severed together with the medial strip proper in the vicinity of the base edge of the full-width tubular portion or may be clipped separately.

Notwithstanding the foregoing illustration and description of one or more embodiments and alternatives, other modifications may be made, as by adding, combining, subdividing, or substituting components, parts, patterns, or steps while retaining some or all of the advantages and benefits of this invention, which itself is defined in the following claims.

The claimed invention:

1. In double needlebed machine knitting of an article having a single full-Width tubular portion extending for part of its length and a plurality of side-by-side partialwidth tubular portions extending for an adjacent part of its length, wherein each of the partial width portions is joined with knitting stitch continuity to the full-width portion at one end of each, the improvement comprising knitting a pair of side-by-side partial-width tubular portions spaced apart from one another by a portion of the width of the base of the full-width tubular portion, their combined width being exceeded by the width of the fullwidth tubular portion at their junction to the base thereof, and including the step of forming between the adjacent pair of spaced apart side-by-side partial-width tubular portions a strip of fabric joined endwise to the base of the full-width tubular portion by being knitted thereto and disjoined from the adjacent partial-width portions.

2. Machine knitting according to claim 1 wherein each of the partial-width tubular portions is less than half as wide as the full-width tubular portion and including the step of forming distinguishable medial front and rear striplike parts of the full-width tubular portion joined endwise to that strip of fabric.

3. Process of making a tubular machine-knit article comprising knitting an article according to claim 1, and including also a finishing step of severing, from the base of the full-width tubular portion of the article, the strip of fabric formed between the adjacent pair of partialwidth tubular portions.

4. In warp-knitting of seamless tubular articles wherein yarn is provided along an entire bandwidth, the improvement comprising knitting a single full-width tubular portion having a width in wales equal to the number of wales produced on the full bandwidth and having a given length, then at an end of the full-width portion knitting a pair of side-by-side partial-width tubular portions joined at an end thereof with knitting stitch continuity to the end of the full-width tubular portion and spaced apart by a distance corresponding to a number of wales by which their combined width in wales is exceeded by the width in wales of the full-width tubular portion, wherein the ends of yarn provided along the medial part during the knitting of the adjacent pair of partial-width tubular portions are knitted into a single strip joined longitudinally with stitch continuity to an end of the full-width tubular portion and disjoined laterally from the adjacent pair of partial-width tbular portions.

5. Warp-knitting according to claim 4, including the step of rendering at least a medial part of the full-width tubular portion opaque relative to the partial-width tubular portions and wherein yarn of finer denier is provided to form the partial-width portions than is provided along the intervening medial part of the bandwidth.

6. Warp-knitting according to claim 4, including the step of rendering at least a medial part of the full-width tubular portion elastic relative to the partial-width tubular 7 portions and wherein spandex yarn is provided along the medial part, whereupon elastic panels are formed therewith along the medial part of the full-Width tubular portion.

7. Warp-knitting according to claim 4, wherein some of the ends of yarn provided along the medial part during the knitting of the adjacent pair of partial-width tubular portions are left unknitted until the junction with the full-width tubular portion and are knitted together therealong.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2/1969 Perrier 66178X OTHER REFERENCES Darlington, K. D.: Seamless Warp Knit Stockings and 1 Tights," The Hosiery Trade Journal, vol. 74, N0. 879,

March 1967, pp. 74 to 77.

Lancashire, J. B.: Warp Knit Stockings, The Knitter, vol. 31, No. 7, July 1967, pp. 32, 54, 55.

Publication: The Hosiery Trade Journal, Raschel 5 Seamless Tights, vol. 74, No. 888, December 1967, pp.

116 and 117.

RONALD FELDBAUM, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 20 66177 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 3 566 619 Dated March 2 1971 Seymour C. Titone Inventor(s) It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

v Column 4, line 2 "apparents" should read apparent line 69, "participiatingY' should read participating Column 6, line 66 "tbular" should read tubular Reference numerals for guide bars should be underlined in eac] of the following locations Column 3, Table I all numerals 11 column marked "Bar"; Column 4 all numerals in each of the following lines: 1 2 4, 7 ll l3 14 18, 21 23, 28 31 and 3S; Column 5, all numerals in lines 2 and 16.

Signed and sealed this 14th day of September 1971 (SEAL) Attest:

EDWARD M,FLETCHER,JR ROBERT GOT'ISCIIALK Attesting Offic r Acting Commissioner of Patent FORM FIG-1050 [10-59] 

